Quick Learner

I'm constantly learning lessons.  And they're nearly always because I've made a mistake.  But, hey, I rarely make the exact same mistake twice.

What was my mistake this time?   Well, as part of the little guy and my volunteer work, I end up with a big bag of bird nesting material in my car every week.  (We do weekly work at a Purple Martin Sanctuary, and one of our duties is to clear out sparrow nests so that the Martins may have their designated spots.)  Anyway, we did our work Sunday morning and I put the bag of nesting material...with a generous coating of bird poo on everything...in my back seat.  Last night the kid and I went shopping and we wondered what the heck was off about the way my car was smelling.  This morning I opened the back seat of my car to put my backpack in and WHOOOOOSH!!!  I got hit in the face with some serious nasty.

Will I be accidentally leaving a bag-o-bird stuff in my car again?  Decidedly unlikely.

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The Eggs are Numbered

Big guy:  "Why do all the eggs have numbers on them?"

Me:  "For rocketry."

Big guy:  "Why for rocketry?"

Me:  "We needed to know how much they each weighed so we could shoot them up in rockets."

Big guy:  "Oh."


I'm so glad I live in a house where numbered eggs draw only the slightest bit of attention for being out of the ordinary.

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Dog Ugly Duds

So this finally happened.


Big guy:  "Did you wear that when you just went out?"


Here's the thing.  I gave our big dog, Hazel, a hair cut today.  And when I do that her hair gets everywhere.  Everywhere!  My routine is to change into something both minimal and undesirable (as in I won't likely want to wear it later that day).

Today's hair cutting ensemble?

• black boxer shorts with red kissing lips all over them...pretty sure they used to belong to one of my boys.

• lavender tank top with purple trim.


It was quite functional and absolutely, positively hideous.


Me:  "No, I changed when I went out and changed back into this lovely fashion statement when I got back."

Big guy:  "Good!"

"Bounding Toward Home"

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Hey, Good Lookin'

We all want confident children, right?  And we want them aware of their strengths and to feel generally pretty great about themselves, right?

Well, the other night I was in the kitchen with Dave and our little guy.


Me:  "Our kid is so much better looking than either of us."  This is a perfectly OK thing for me to say as a mom of my beautiful kid.

My kid:  "Yeah."  Hmmmmm...while it's perfectly OK for him to respond in this way, I'm thinking perhaps it could have been said with just a bit of a pause to reflect upon the genetic goo he received.


You know, something like, "I'm just so lucky that both of my parents are soooo good lookin'."  A white lie like that is perfectly fine in my book.

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More Psychic than I Wanna Be

I'm pretty close to my kids.  No doubt.  Many, many years of mostly relationship building stuff and here we are.  But sometimes we're just a little too close.  As in psychically close.

The big guy was heading out to meet someone about some potential work.  I was in the kitchen when he came to the bar to talk to me.  I looked at him as he sat on a stool.


Me:  "You look nice."

Big guy:  "You can only see a little of me, mom."  Ya, it's hard to give the guy a compliment.

Me:  "Well, from what I do see, you look nice.  Except you better zip up your fly."


Now, could I see anything on him below his chest?  Nope.

Was his fly indeed open?  Yup.

Did we get just a tad freaked out?  You bet.

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